The Crystal Palace manager, Ian Holloway, hailed "another fantastic performance" from his side after they had downed Derby to remain top of the Championship table.

Holloway inherited a Palace side on an 11-game unbeaten run and they have stretched it with a further three wins under his stewardship. Glenn Murray scored two and set up another for André Moritz as Palace's class told against a Derby side whose midfield included the 17-year-old Will Hughes and two 20-year-olds.

"It's yet another fantastic performance against a good team," Holloway said. "They didn't stop from start to finish and the professionalism and determination to keep this run going is awesome. I have to say it's an absolute pleasure to watch them play. So, very excited, well done, it's a great performance and it shows signs of being a bit more than solid."

Yannick Bolasie and the freshly capped England international Wilfried Zaha flanked Murray in a typically attack-minded approach from Holloway, and the wingers created countless opportunities for Murray and the supporting Palace midfielders. "Wilf was a bit more quiet than he usually is but I think we're starting to look a bit of a handful and I think Murray up the middle was absolutely fantastic," Holloway said.

"That's seven in three [Murray's] scored for me. Quite awesome, his second goal was as good as I've seen. Brilliant – his strength to hold him off, then to come in and then flip it over [the goalkeeper]."

Derby had only themselves to blame for the opener as Murray met Bolasie's 12th-minute corner unmarked to nod home his 14th goal of the season. They fought hard but the pressure told as Murray headed Damien Delaney's long ball into the path of Moritz, who then fired past Adam Legzdins in the 58th minute. Murray added a third and his second as he wove his way into the box and rounded Legzdins before curling the ball left-footed into the roof of the net.

The Derby manager, Nigel Clough, was unhappy with the way they conceded the first but acknowledged Murray had ultimately been the difference between the sides.

He said: "There was a lot of blocking going on which happens but sometimes you hope that you just get a referee which sees it, sometimes you don't. But I can't have too many complaints. He's got a free header from eight yards out and having started quite brightly, we found ourselves one-nil down. After all the talk of the widemen and their threat, he was the difference – the centre-forward Murray. "He was the one player that caused us all the problems today."